Wise to invest in the stock market?

Question

I am a full time college student, with a part time job. It would be nice to make a little more money on the side. Is the stock market a wise place to turn for a person in my situation?

Answer 1

Yes, why not? As long as you learn and know what you're doing. Investing in the market at a young age will help ensure that you're comfortable financially and able to do what you want in the future instead of being like those who go, "I wish I started investing when I was younger"

Just be sure to get some good education on where to put some money. Use ETFs, not mutual funds. Anyone who recommends mutual funds is either not very knowledgable about the differences, or may be associated with the industry and profiting from fees drawn from mutual funds. I digress.

Long and short of it is, the sooner you start, the greater your compounding will be. But that is balanced and offset by the knowledge component.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Its an interesting question. As young as you are, if the stock market tanks, you will have no problem coming back from any losses. But the market is very high right now. There are disturbing signs on the horizon so it could tank soon. Of course it all depends on making the right investment choice because even if the market as a whole goes down, some stocks will be going up. Then you have foreign stocks to consider--and if the value of the dollar goes down (which a lot of forecasters expect) then the value of foreign holdings automatically goes up. Ultimately, you and you alone have to make the decision. As with all investments, its best not to put all your eggs in one basket. Spread it around. Some people like gold, or other commodities. Some people like the safety of federally insured accounts. You could do half in a regular insured bank account and half in stocks. But research your stocks!

Answer 3

You are wise to start investing relatively early (better yet to start even earlier, like in high school). But you need to do your homework & educate yourself about financial planning & investing in the stock market before you take the plunge. Sounds complicated, but it's not really. After you've begun researching, you can start following and tracking the stock market with a phantom portfolio of stocks, ETFs, funds, indexes, etc. Make choices, track performance, compare & analyze results, and then refine your decision making process and criteria to make better future choices.
It's an evolving, learning process.

Educating yourself will help you to identify your long-term financial goals, develop a plan to achieve them, and help you follow that plan. You'll end up thinking a LOT differently about money than you do now. Although there's no set timeframe, give yourself at least a month of researching and tracking before you are confident and prepared enough to dive in.

In the meantime, just keep your savings in an account. As you'll learn in the stock market, don't rush - be patient. In fact, the desire to make money fast and furiously will often get you killed. Impulse buying/selling is bad for shopping, but it's much worse for stocks. In the beginning, stay on the safe side. No penny stocks.

And lastly, in my own personal opinion, you should be focusing on saving rather than investing. If you only have 1K to invest, and your stock/fund pick goes up 10% a year, that's only $100. Sticking it in an online savings account at 5% will get you $50. Not a big difference, despite the 5% differential. You can make $50 in 5 hours.

You should get really gung ho on saving now, and save let's say, 5K. At 10%, that's $500! With bank interest only giving you $250.

So build up your cash via income and savings first, and THEN focus on investing.

I'd wish you good luck -
but saving and investing doesn't depend on luck, but mostly on planning, preparation, and good judgment. Any luck element that exists is less influential than these 3.

Answer 4

Its always a good idea to invest in the stock market. For a young person it might be harder to have the patience and discipline to put the money away every month and not move it or touch it no matter what happens. But if you can do it then it will pay off, provided you have a time span of a few years.

Answer 5

Unfortunately over the short term the stock market is something of a crapshoot-- an investment can go up 20% in a couple of weeks, but it can also go just as far in the opposite direction. In general I would recommend the stock market as a way to build wealth over a long period of time, rather than a way to supplement your income over the short term. Though, getting starting in investing as soon as possible is a very good idea.

Answer 6

For a nice complete answer, read Peter Lynch's (1) One Up on Wall Street and (2) Beating the Street before you decide to invest. And he will also give you a convincing argument as to why it is important to invest in the market. Peter Lynch was the LEGENDARY money manager of the legendary mutual fund MAGELLAN.

Answer 7

How much money? Don't play with more than you are willing to lose. The market is better for long-term investing than short-term speculation (unless you are very, very good).

Answer 8

Absolutely--NOT!

No, if you need extra money, trying selling something. I knew a few guys who did it, but they made their bucks before they got to school, figuring it out in high school. Even they made their seed money selling stuff (one sold tires in his father's store, another sold kitchen appliances at planned dinner parties). I do know one kid who sold Amway then got going good in commodities, but he didn't bother going to college afterwards, but he was an egghead with a plan that worked. What have you got besides a hopeful guess? Stick with what you know. Go plunk down a dollar for a powerball and get back to work. Good luck.

Answer 9

No u can not have BYOB. It is teh illegals./ instead what u can do is serve soup instead of alcohol. It is none alcohollic (unless u get the alcoohlo soup which u will not) and tastes fruitally dellisious. No12 will miss the alalcohol. Havin't u heard that alclcohol causes brane tummars anyway. Do u really want ur cstomars 2 get brane tummars. no. the anseer is no u don't then they can sue u & ur bar cant they. yes they can. that is y u shud serve the none alccooholic soup[ istead of BYOB cans. BYOB cans u will get suued, none alccohjolic soup u would neva.